Jj is for Jottings 54. Should I Correct My Child’s Speech?
This is Linguine, Kieran’s Murray Darling carpet python. The pic I really wanted was too blurry. Shikha caught a 23 cm long baby brown snake last week and brought it to the front door step to play with. Having just stepped out of the shower I snatched him inside and dressed hastily. When I returned it was nowhere in sight. I found it wriggling around in David’s boot, on the step below! Taking photos inside boots doesn’t work too well. Great composition – reared up with its mouth gaping open – but blurry. Linguine said he’d be happy to stand in (and he’s beautiful and harmless).
Many parents these days are concerned that they will somehow damage their child’s psyche if they correct their speech and language or, indeed, if they set and adhere to firm limits on what is acceptable behaviour, screen time and various other aspects of life. First of all we must differentiate between “speech” and “language”: “speech” refers to the sounds, and “language” refers to the use of words (written or spoken) in a structured way according to rules and conventions. What we are dealing with in this article is just speech. We will deal with language separately.
Speech sounds develop in order although, as with everything else, there are plenty of exceptions and children will always find ways to surprise you. So you need to have an idea of what to expect at different ages to avoid unreasonable corrections. Here is a quick guide as to what they can say at each age level:
2 years: /p, b, m, t, d, n, h, w/
3 years: /f, k, g, ng, s/
4 years: Most sounds are correct – /m, n, h, w, p, b, t, d, k, g, ng, f, y, s, z, sh, ch, j, l/. They also use sounds together at the start and end of words eg. /bl/ in blue; /nd/ in hand. Most vowels are said correctly.
5 years: Children still have difficulties with these – /r, v, th/; some groups of sounds such as /scr, str/; sounds in long words such as “spaghetti, caterpillar”; and some children still lisp (i.e. say /th/ instead of /s/.
(Note – different sources of speech sound norms have some remarkable variations, so if you have seen different information elsewhere, that is why.)
Clearly it would be unreasonable to expect a 4 year old child to say /th/ or /r/, although some of them can and do. But for the sounds which you have heard your child say but are not always used correctly it is reasonable to ask them to repeat the word – not in a punitive manner but in an open, friendly “let’s have another go at this” sort of way, with praise for the attempt and even more for a successful attempt. If it is not successful after a second attempt I would leave it, because it may be asking too much. You won’t do any harm to the child’s confidence if your approach is encouraging and they are praised for their willingness to make the attempt.
There is one thing you can always safely do, regardless of whether or not the child is yet able to say certain sounds, and that is to FEED IN the correct sounds, without asking for them to repeat. If you hear a speech error, you can always drop in an emphasized, correct repeat of the word into the conversation. Eg. Child: “I wike that one”. You: “Yes, I LLLIKE that one, too”. (Not shouting – italics and bold type don’t come up on Facebook). This helps to prepare the child for when they do learn to say the sound (or have speech therapy.)